On the streets of Northern Ireland, children learn bigotry from those old enough to know better

A sign inside the front door of Holy Cross primary school in north Belfast reads, "If we'd been born where they were born and taught what they were taught, we would believe what they believe."

Before they could get inside to read that sign last week, pupils of Holy Cross--Roman Catholic girls as young as four, none older than 11--got a brutal lesson in belief. To get to school, they had to run a gauntlet of abuse from their Protestant neighbors that began with insults and spit and within days escalated to bricks and blast bombs. Scores of police and soldiers...